Case 530, Plowing Questions

Hi all,

I hate to bring up the eternal (and unanswerable) question, "how much plow can my tractor pull?", but I wanted to get some opinions from the experts here. I have a chance to buy a kverneland 3 furrow plow, hydrien-style beam for a price that's way to good to pass up. Only problem is, I can't really justify another plow at my farm, especially a 3 furrow which would see limited use.

At my father's farm, however, I feel he could benefit from something other than his old trail plow that's been cobbled and welded together. It's just too small and worn for the amount of land he's trying to work with it. Unfortunately the strongest tractor he has with a 3 pt. hitch is an old 530 Case. I know that pulling one of these high speed kvernelands is too much for the old girl, even in his sandy soil. I was wondering, however, if it would be unreasonable to unbolt the rear board & reset and just use it as a two furrow plow.

I admit I've spent very little time on the 530 since he got it, but I think I remember it having a cat. 1 hitch, which might put a stopper on the whole plan. I worked with an old Case once (forget the model) that could be adapted to a cat. 2 hitch if the hitch arms were reversed and some bushings removed where they bolt to the tractor. I imagine this was only for moving the odd implement, and putting a heavy kverneland wouldn't have been in the scope of what these hitches should reasonably be made to handle.

I'm open to any thoughts, recommendations, or criticisms that you might have

Don't sell the 530 short. Our 53 SC pulled 3 14s in central Texas. If you have a 530 triple range before you take one plow off try it, may surprise you. Also I would bet a 3 plow set up is a class 1 hitch anyhow. To convert it all you have to do is change out the hitch pins anyway. I haven't seen any implements made for conventional 3pt that the eagle hitch won't hook to either, spacing seems to be OK. I have a Ford contract Servis bush hog that I hook to my 630 like it was made for it and JD 3pt No. 8 sicle mowers, Servis back blade, post hole diggers and other things hooked up directly to our SC with no trouble.

Jim

The 530's always pulled 3x14's around here. The issue is the draft bar in the Kneverland plow. If my memory serves me correctly, that plow has a solid bar and the pins are machined on the ends. CatII are 32" and your tractor is at 26" We heated and spread the arms on 7-830 EH tractors, to accept CatII hitch. You didn't mention if your 530 was EH or a DOM. If a DOM, you can probably find some aftermarket cat II hitch arms for it. Not sure, but you could also run into a clearaance problem with the front beam and colter on the Kneverland, being the arms are short on a 530, with 28" rears.
Loren

Thanks guys for your thoughts. Good point about the solid draft bar, didn't think of that before. His 530 has a standard hitch, not an eagle. Guess I'd need to look into getting some new arms for it.

I just assumed the plow was a Cat. II hitch because that's what my other mounted kverneland is. That plow has the square beam with the adjustable width boards and full length coil resets, so it's a lot heavier. Maybe this one has a Cat. I, not close enough for me to run over and check. Does anyone know for sure if all kverneland 3 furrows had a class II hitch?